Notable met with Slice’s Real Housewives of Toronto ahead of broadcast to get to know the cast on a more professional level. What you may not see on The Real Housewives of Toronto is that each woman is successful in her own right, professionally and personally.
Plus, Roxy Earle is not a betch.
I was born and raised in Toronto, and went to Etobicoke School of the Arts, as a theatre major, and then Wilfrid Laurier for my degree in Business and Communications.
Let’s talk about how you adopted the mentality that it’s cool and great to have shape.
Everyone keeps pegging me as “The Real Housewives of Toronto plus size girl” and I don’t have plus size — I have my size, and I’ve been my size my whole life. When I was younger, I wasn’t excluded from fashion because I always fit into the clothes, though I was always at the top level of the sizing. I never felt excluded from fashion like I did when I became an adult and wanted to start wearing designer pieces.
As a young woman, I was conscious that I was bigger than the other girls — my chest was growing bigger, my hips were growing faster, and I just remember constantly wishing I could be slim, blonde, normal, regular, not hairy. I wanted to be the prototype of what this average Canadian girl looked like, and I was never that.
But I had amazing parents who instilled in me that I was beautiful, and my confidence grew from having a loving mother and father. Plus, I’m the younger sister of 3 brothers so I grew a thick skin.
It’s funny that everybody is fixated on my body type because, there really is so much more to me than my body type.
I think a lot of women right now are looking for leaders. Women to familiarize with, and have somebody cheering for them, like Nadia Aboulhosn and Ashley Graham.
Ashley Graham messaged me the other day! I paired one of her Addition Elle lingerie pieces with a jean cape and wore it to a fashion event, and she wrote to me saying, “ You look so beautiful. You’re gorgeous. Keep rocking it girl.” I was so flattered because she’s somebody that I see as a trailblazer in the world of fashion.
My story is more than me saying, “I’m so curvy and fabulous”, it’s a story about inclusion and everyone feeling good. Literally 50% of the women in Canada don’t deserve to feel badly about themselves every time they leave their house or look in the mirror, and that’s why I’m doing The Real Housewives of Toronto. I’m putting myself out there so the body-shamers can shame, but shame me and not some young girl.
What has your experience as a Housewife been like?
I hope that people can see that I’m a pretty dynamic woman and there’s more to me than just shoes and spending money. I’m actually very business orientated and ambitious. I’m self made and I wish people would stop asking me about my husband and what my husband does. My husband is phenomenal and an incredible support system, but my husband did not make me Roxy Earle — I am made on my own.
So tell us about Roxy Earle.
I’ve had a successful career in advertising, I started as an executive assistant at Ogilvy and five years later I was their client managing the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa) for the Amex brand at Ogilvy UK. I was transferred to London to be the director of EMEA region at Ogilvy for Amex. Wanting to return home, I moved back and later became the manager of advertising and sponsorship at Amex back in Canada.
Now I’m back in Toronto and building a lifestyle brand. I want to change the way women look at luxury fashion.